On Mar 14, 4:23 pm, "Anthony Fremont" wrote:

If you can get to 1 KHz below the transmitter, you should be able to
copy CW as 1KHz audio. If you can only get to 1.5 KHz below, you'll
get 1.5 KHz audio... not ideal listening, but probably workable.

Right. I was hoping to be able to "get on the other side" of the signal to
have a second chance at avoiding possible QRM.

My guess is the project's original author hadn't planned on that...
most likely, they'd planned on rubbering the crystal only far enough
to get a reasonable audio tone from the RF-LO combination.

Obviously you can get more range out of a VFO, though building nice
VFO's isn't simple.

Even the tuning caps can be a pain. I spent a while as a teenager
knocking alternate plates out of old 365 pf AM broadcast caps to try
to make some suitable for 40 meters - or you can use a series
capacitor. Beware hand capacitance when you go to tune it. Today,
varacter tuning is another option - stable regulated supply and a
multi-turn pot.

Another thing you might do is google the "poundshop" (dollar store)
receiver projects. Those are little KHz-IF varactor tuned auto-
scanning FM radios that people have been modifying into direct
conversion ham band receivers.